5 Amazing Benefits Of Cork Products

Considered as the global leading sustainable raw material, cork stands out as a favorite option for manufacturers and designers to further explore. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a wine stopper might give you a clear image of traditional cork using purpose. Due to the tremendous advantages that cork has to offer, cork products are rapidly growing within wide ranges of applications. Cork is a natural material which is well known for its elasticity and impermeability. Products made from cork are also very lightweight, waterproof and stain resistant. Nowadays, cork is widely used for homeowners who are seeking for eco-friendly alternatives for their furniture. If this isn’t reason enough for you to opt for some cork products, we have several convincing pieces of evidence for their advantage that you might not know of.

1. Water Resistant

This is a thoughtful reason to explain why cork is used as a bottle stopper and also as flooring. It might look spongy outside, but what will amaze us is that cork is waterproof. This material contains millions of cells in each cubic centimeter which may be mistaken as absorbent fabric; however, these cells also contain suberin, which is a natural fatty substance. Therefore, almost no water retention is made within its cell walls, perfectly explaining why cork has water resistance properties.

Cork bags and sleeves are perfect selections for you to keep your devices totally safe even in the most severe weather conditions, thanks to their moisture resistance and liquid impermeability.

2. Health And Safety

Products made from cork are actually beneficial to your health. They help carry your devices safely. Cork is naturally anti-microbial which assures a great promise in deteriorating mold, mildew, termites and other harmful insect infestations. Cork's antistatic surface limits the chance of dust and toxin absorption, making it a great choice for people with allergies. Being a great material to use around the home, cork hardly releases volatile organic compounds that may affect badly your home’s indoor atmosphere. Cork is also a slow combustion material, which contains off-gas property that prevents itself against flame and heat. It takes extremely high temps to let the inflammation or melting occur. During the combustion process, cork generates less smoke and chemicals than other materials such as vinyl and laminate.

Note: Although cork is considered fire resistant, don’t mistake that it is well fire retardant too. It is better not to place things made from cork close to open flame.

3. Durability

Cork is often used as materials in the household, for instance as a flooring, bath mats, and tableware since it is proved to be super resistant. Its cracking and abrasions resistance, along with amazing ability to stay well against liquids and moisture help your cork products’ lifetime extent up to 30 years or longer if properly cared for. In addition to cork flooring products, cork can maintain its pristine form in spite of the weight of furniture that is placed on it, so you can assure there will be no indent marks caused by furniture over time. Apparently, with such impressive properties, there is no doubt that cork is the most long-lasting material ever.

4. Environmentally Friendly

Almost cork products have very little or no negative impact on the environment. As originally harvested from the bark of cork oak trees, it showed that without chopping down the actual trees, people can still make use of their products into industrialization. No waste has been made during the manufacturing process, and the leftover materials are reused and bound together.

Another reason is that the periods for re-harvesting bark are long (every 14 years available) which make cork rapidly renewable among other natural resources. Since cork is recyclable, a significant amount of carbon incorporated in this material can be delayed to emit back to the atmosphere. Otherwise, as the cork is sustainable, cork industries find themselves in need to adopt more cork oak trees so as to meet the growing demand from purchasers, which indirectly creates a cycle that supports a healthier environment.

5. Versatility And Diversity

Cork is a versatile raw material which is available in many different technological transformation processes, thereby generating several products in various sizes, styles, and colors. Since cork is taken from nature; therefore, no piece is the same. Thus, there will be a multitude of grain, texture and color choices regarding cork products. This is why no two cork handbags are exactly alike!

The two factors that make cork a favorite thermal insulation are the low thermal conductivity and incredibly compressive strength. Thus, cork products are widely used in floor coverings, shoes, fridge’s thermal insulation and other construction purposes. Not yet, as being super tenacious, cork is totally recyclable and cork products can be recycled many times. They can be grouped together no matter how it varies in sizes. In the final stage of their life when no more cork can be useful for a human being, cork products can be used in energy degeneration, producing CO2 and high calorific value when being incinerated.

About the author:

Victoria Tan is a Health and Beauty expert with nearly 10 years of experience in the Health Care industry. For more health care tips on healthy living, visit her at the website TrueRemedies.com. There, you will find posts on natural treatments, recipes, healthy foods, and so much more.